The numerical taxonomy technique is a multi - criteria decision making technique for evaluating and ranking alternatives, and is widely used in areas of planning and development. This Model like the other multi- criteria decision making models has some drawbacks, the most important criticism on this method is uniform presuming the indicators and being the indicators in same direction. Therefore, the objective of this paper is presenting appropriate methodology for improvement of this method and eliminating the limitations of this technique and introducing the modified taxonomy model. In the following of introducing the modified model, for better representing the difference, the two models is used to assess the level of development in rural areas of Mazandaran province. The research method is descriptive and applied, and libraries based on data of the 1385 Census. Results showed the more accurate the modified model compared with the contemporary taxonomy model. Development coefficient (Fi) and rank in these models have substantially different. Based on numerical taxonomy rural areas of Ghaemshahr Township with a grade of 0.455 are in rating 1 and rural areas of Ghaloga Township with a grade of 0.455 are in rating 3, Whereas with the modified model that to weight important indicators and also the direction of indicators (being positive or negative) is significant, Levels of development in rural areas of Ghaloga Township with a grade of. 396 to rating 1 and Ghaemshahr Township to rating 2 change.

Assessing the level of development of communities has been a concern for regional planners in all countries. The use of quantitative criteria for the classification of settlements leads to understanding the level of inequality between residential areas and provides a measure to reduce and eliminate these inequalities. To address regional imbalances, regions need to be identified and classified based on their level of development in different areas. The aim of this research is to identify disadvantaged areas and plan for reducing intra-regional disparities to achieve balanced development. In this study, 12 indices have been selected within the framework of numerical taxonomy analysis to assess the level of development and classify the counties of Bushehr Province. The research method used in this study is descriptive-analytical. Based on this classification, Bushehr with a development coefficient of 0. 01382 is the most developed city, while Jam with a coefficient of 0. 724444 is identified as the most disadvantaged city in the province. The results of this research indicate a center-periphery pattern dominating the spatial structure of Bushehr Province.

Classification and provision of desertification intensity map, as an efficient tool, has an important role in evaluation of environmental capability and prevention of desertification and reclamation of degraded lands. Therefore, in this research vulnerability assessment of environmental issues to desertification risk has been assessed in Abozydabad region using Modify Numerical Taxonomy (MNT) model. Results show that MNT model has high ability to assess desertification risk and provision of desertification intensity map. Weighted average of the quantitative value of desertification intensity was estimated at 0.54 for all the study area (intense class of desertification risk). The obtained results show that %29.5 of the area has high vulnerability and %2.5 of the area has severe vulnerability to desertification and %68 of the region has moderate vulnerability to desertification. The obtained results provide better planning for desertification minimizing in relation to development projects and the balance between development projects and environment can be possible according to priorities and vulnerability hazard zoning of the area.

Background: One of the main pillars of sustainable development is health and wellness which is an integral part of improving the quality of life. Lack of hygiene facilities and human resources and their inadequate distribution in urban and rural areas are major problems in providing health services in third world countries. The main and important reasons for inequalities in the distribution of health sector resources include inappropriate and poor budget allocation to the health sector, inadequate and long-term planning. This study was conducted to determine the degree of development of Abadan, Khorramshahr and Shadegan cities in terms of health indicators using numerical taxonomy model. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in 3 cities of Abadan, Khorramshahr and Shadegan in Khuzestan province in 2016. The data collection tool was a checklist containing information needed to calculate 15 health indices that were collected from Abadan Medical School Deputy of Health. The numerical taxonomy of these cities was evaluated in terms of degree of development of health indicators. Results: According to the values of the upper and lower limits of homogeneity distance and the values of the shortest distance between cities, it was found that all cities (regions) were homogeneous and were in the same group. Finally, the results showed that Abadan is considered to be developed (0. 47), Shadegan under developed (0. 78) and Khorramshahr undeveloped (0. 81). Conclusion: Regarding the results obtained for improving the health status and managing the health sector, it is suggested that a comprehensive development-based program to be developed for reducing gaps and inequalities in terms of health indicators and to pay specific attention to the main development indicators of health care system based on population in each region.

Phenetic studies were performed on 97 populations of 13 Tulipa species and varieties belonging to the subgenus Tulipa of Iran in order to reveal inter-population variations, inter-specific differences and relationships as well as checking taxonomic position of T. ulophylla. Statistical analyses showed that, populations differ significantly in most of the quantitative morphological characters while species differ significantly in certain characteristics, which may be used in the species delimitation. Clustering and discriminant analysis supported taxonomic treatment of the subgenus Tulipa and also inclusion of T. ulophylla in the section Eichleres.

Aeluropus as a perennial and rhizomatous grass with 5 species in the world is the only member of Aeluropodeae. Due to the presence of hybrids taxa and some subspecies, effective diagnostic features provided for their classification have been insufficient. Aeluropus identification has a lot of problems. In this project 23 accessions of Aeluropus from different localities of Iran have been studied using 26 qualitative and 22 quantitative morphological features. Some accessions with intermediate morphological characters were found between A.littoralis and A. lagopoides. Multivariate statistical analysis comprises Cluster analysis and Ordination was done by use of SPSS ver.9.1.Software. Species relationships were evaluated by use of qualitative and quantitative morphological features. Results of statistical analysis showed that there were clearly four different species in this genus in Iran and some intermediate accessions too. An identification key based on studied morphological diagnostic characters was provided for members of this genus in Iran.

It is more than a quarter of century that economic development has been discussed as a goal and better value in the western and eastern societies, developed and undeveloped. It is mostly determined based on following believes and requirements: - Economic development is a linear trend, assessable and with an infinite persistence- Fulfilling the development will ensure the social and political development Accepting such theories and pre-requirements and this point that fast development is the only way by which all society’s complications such as housing, nutrition, employment, training encountered in most undeveloped countries will be removed, resulted in ambitious objectives in developing countries. But evaluating the result of first decade of this policy by UN (1960-1970) as well as the social situation of countries which experienced fast development, indicates that there is no reciprocal and direct relation between discussed development and balanced development such that even it has heightened the social inequalities and increased internal conflicts in most developing countries. This indicates that development is not merely an economical event and in order to promote their developmental bases and to remove and reducing the imbalances and most economical, social and cultural problems, most societies need planning and knowing the possibilities and their current and potential resources more than past.

Phalaris is a grass which is distributed throughout the temperate regions of the world. There are many taxonomic problems in this genus. In order to clarify the taxonomy and the interrelationships among Iranian Phalaris taxa, including Ph. minor, Ph. arundinaceae, Ph. brachystachys and Ph. paradoxa 70 qualitative and quantitative morphological characteristics were examined. Numerical taxonomy was performed on 36 accessions of 5 taxa, concerning intra- and interpopulations variations as well as inter-specific relationships. The most variable morphological characters in the species delimitation were also determined. The species differed significantly in most of chosen qualitative characters. Results show a clear similarity between two varieties of Ph. paradoxa. Despite the wide range of habitats where the accessions were gathered, they showed four definite spots in their PCA ordination graphs. This showed the efficiency of chosen morphological characters in this study. An identification key based on studied features was provided and the species relationships were discussed.

Noticeable variation was observed in a number of morphological characters in the Glycyrrhiza specimens in various habitats in north of Iran. To study these variations, two taxa related to the Hyrcanian region from all four known taxa of this genus in Iran, including Glycyrrhiza echinata, and G. glabra var. glabra were studied by numerical taxonomy using morphological characters in three provinces, Golestan, Mazandaran, and Gilan. A total of 15 populations were studied in terms of 60 quantitative and qualitative characters of vegetative and reproductive organs, and the obtained data were analyzed by SPSS software after encoding. Based on the PCA analysis, 11 components created about 98% of diversity, indicating the separation of relatively numerous characters for these taxa. Among these traits, the best one was the length of the pedicle. In the WARD cluster analysis, the populations of each taxon are located in a separate cluster and their position in each cluster is also significantly aligned with the longitude, which can be attributed to the significant influence of climate conditions, including relative humidity from west to east on the variety of peculiarities in these taxa. Based on the results of this study, taxonomic treatment of the studied taxa in Flora Iranica confirmed.